drillam

I don't know what's invovled/included in your kit, not had the time to look at it sorry, but if you can get the supplier to split it down into 2 or 3 lower value packages and get them delivered to different friends addresses you'll likely get away with it,,I did

I wouldn't be too concerned about the weight. My self build has about a 14Kg Lifepo type battery and a big rear hub motor weighing about 8Kg, I weigh around 95+ Kilos and I also take a lot of shopping on the back paniers and in my backpack. All this on a cheap mopuntain bike, no problems really apart from the front end is a bit light and so I'm in the process of making a couple of battery boxes to mount to the forks to even things up a bit. Good luck

I bought two batteries, both 48v x 20ah and a 1000w kit, total around £960ish a few months back from a Chinese Ebay seller. I got him to split it all down to three packages to three different addresses, no duty

ZERO MOTORCYCLES – The Electric Motorcycle Company - Official Site

has anyone tried insuring a bike built from kit components?

I built my first lecky bike (kit) a few months back which sounds similar to yours. I didn't post pics or a write up of it as I got the impression that "illegal" sized bikes were slightly fowned upon on the site. Whether I got the right or wrong impression, I'm very happy with it and am now hooked.

I nip down to Tescos every day or so at around 7pm, fill up the panniers with any half price bargains and come home feeling smug, http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/drillam/ebike/IMG_9300-1.jpg

I agree. As one who has built a more powerfull bike than standard, I did it for the reason Allen states - power. I rarely take it above 15 - 20mph even though it is capable of higher speeds. I only know this because, like you do, I tested it out on a private road when I first built it. I am however very aware that I do not want to attract too much attention to what is an already unusual looking bike, so I keep my speed down and ride in the most unobtrusive fashion I think appropriate for the circumstances.

too much weight at the rear of the bike, it's making the front end real skittish. The rear mounted motor is quite big, then I have a couple of old BMW motorcycle panniers and a rack, it all ads up. With the battery split and mounted down low(ish) on the front it was much better.

It handled a damn sight better than before, dunno if that's a good sign or a bad un though . I'm taking them off today and reverting to the single battery in the pannier until the materials I'm ordering come though, then I'll build some ally boxes and remount them.

only a tad? :-)

OK, but not much to show at the moment as it's still a bit of a work in progress. Although I've done about 500 miles or so since building the bike I found that the rear end was very heavy and the front twitchy. So I decided to split the battery and place it lower down, one half on each side of the front wheel. here's a few shots of the battery being split:- http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/drillam/ebike/IMG_0262.jpg Those short metal joining strips between the long ones had to be cut and a length of wire inserted in their place. I used a Dremmel but first prised them up from the cells so they wouldn't get accidentaly damage by the cutting disc. http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/drillam/ebike/IMG_0263.jpg The cut ends were then folded back out of the way. http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/drillam/ebike/IMG_0265-1.jpg And then the cable soldered into place. http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/drillam/ebike/IMG_0267.jpg I used a homemade old fashioned type soldering iron, the kind you heat on a flame as I wanted to use a lot of heat quickly when soldering the wires to the metal strips as I reckon there's less chance of heat damage to the cells that way as opposed to farting around for ages with a lower temp iron. You heat it until the flame coming off the copper turns green, that shows the correct temp. Unfortunately I couldn't hold the camera & iron steady enough when taking the shots so it doesn't really show too well. http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/drillam/ebike/IMG_0258.jpg I took your advise and split it lengthwise, a much easier option that I initially planned. http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/drillam/ebike/IMG_0268.jpg I've knocked up a coupla boxes to hold them to the front pannier racks. They're big & ugly but are just a temp bodge to see if it all works out. If all goes well I'll make something out of ally angle and sheet, also probably ditch the foam packing which I put all around it for protection as it makes the boxes too bulky. http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/drillam/ebike/IMG_0285.jpg http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/drillam/ebike/IMG_0287.jpg If anyone's interested I'll let you know how it all goes. thanks Millard

Thanks for your responses fellas, it's done now. cheers

I bought a 48v lifepo4 battery a few months back and mounted it on one side of a rear carrier on my bike, but find it a bit heavy on one side and am intending to split it into two parts and mount it on each side of a front pannier rack low down on the front forks. Here's a pic of the battery pack partially opened. http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/drillam/ebike/IMG_9818-1.jpg As you can see there are 288 individual cells laid out in rows. Moving from left to right in the picture - rows 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, are wired back to the BMS, whilst the adjoining rows (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16) are connected to them by short metal strips. The reverse side of the pack is wired the same way, making 16 wires in a loom going back to the BMS. My intention is to cut the metal strips halway along each row on both sides of the pack using a cutting disc mounted in a Dremmel tool, then solder them together with a 2m length of 25 way multicore cable I've bought, only using 16 of the wires in the cable. This should in effect leave the wiring as before but physically split the pack into two more or less equall (in weight & bulk) packs so I can mount one either side of the front wheel. My question is this :- when I cut through the metal strips do I also have to rejoin the even numbered strips or not? Thanks

I got one from here :- 1000W 48V KIT Electric bicycle kit E-BIKE Motor Scooter 26'' - vpower also batteries. Looks very similar to these but cheaper:- 1000W 48V Alien Electric Bicycle e-Bike Conversion Kit on eBay (end time 30-Jul-10 23:12:51 BST) My first electric bike so I can't compare it to anything else? all I'll say is that it takes my 92Kg weight effortlesly up the steepest of gradients and after covering around 300 miles or so it's given me no problems so far. I got it from them on ebay, I think under £300 or so delivered. slightly noisy but not obtrusive.